Affluence Follows Action

Written by on October 12, 2018 / Attitude

I’m writing this article ten days into my fiftieth year on Earth. My journey thus far has taught me many things but one of the most valuable lessons I learned came early on in my career.  In my final semester in college, I worked as a bellman in a Marriott hotel in New York. Being ambitious, and having invested several years of my life in studying business, I wanted to advance as rapidly as possible. Marriott had an excellent management training program and, upon graduation, I was accepted into it at the very hotel where I was working.

On Friday I was a bellman and the following Monday I was a management trainee in the housekeeping department.

My friends, the people with whom I worked, were stunned. I was the same person, but now I had some perceived authority. How could that be? The nice guy who gave directions to restaurants and carried people’s bags was now going to be in charge of keeping this place clean?

Candidly, I was stunned too.  I went from hustling around a beautiful hotel seeing who I could help in any way possible, to crawling on floors sniffing for spilled baby formula. I worked with a staff of dedicated people who had a different ethnic background and spoke a different language. My job was now about removing any barriers to success that lay in their path and making sure they had the tools they needed to do their work. But I didn’t even know what their work was.

So I rolled up my sleeves and worked in every role in the department during the day and learned the “management stuff” at night.

I learned a lot – including how to speak Spanish.  I earned the respect of many members of the housekeeping team during those first six months.  I was young and foolish (in many ways) but I knew that action was the answer to any problem I faced. My rule of thumb was to act and adjust faster than any problem or challenge could grow or develop.  People liked that. When someone brought me an issue, I asked questions, took suggestions and then did something.

It has been 29 years since I discovered the power of action and I’m still using it today.  This week, my son Nick and I flew up to New York (from our home in Miami) to watch our favorite baseball team – the New York Yankees – play in the American League Division Series.  Nick is 9 years old and he will remember that trip forever.  A couple of days before I left I purchased a new car for my wife and wrote a check for my fiftieth birthday party at a five-star restaurant. All of these things were financed through the power of action.

When one of my friends saw the photos of Nick and I from New York, he wrote: “Flying first class on book money.” He was alluding to my new book The 60 Second Sale – which was released this past July.  In a way he’s right.  I’ve been hustling so much to get that book in the hands of business leaders that work has come in the door as a result. Yes, I guess it’s book money, but I believe it is money that has come from the action I took in the year leading up to the release of the book and the media I’ve done to promote the book and the hundreds of articles I’ve written and videos I’ve posted to attract people who read the book and hired me.

You have the same opportunities. Whatever your business, whatever you sell, affluence follows action. Pick up the phone and call someone you knew years ago and reconnect with them. See how you can add value to their business and their life. Repeat that action until you’ve spoken with everyone you can think of, then go make some new friends.  Deliver value as often as possible to as many different people as possible.

You don’t need book money. You need relationship money.

Affluence follows action. Start now.